Hairdresser

I've just got back from the hairdresser's, and talking to you. I left at 5.00, and have just got back. I don't know whether I should feel ridiculous or relieved. Maybe (and you know who you are) you'll email and let me know.

A flock of colours, a path of yellow moonlight — and may a slow wind work these words of love around you...to mind your life

1 January 2010
From John O'Donohue (1956-2008), a blessing for your New Year:

Beannacht
("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.